Long Weekend Update

Dante is doing so well, I have very little to report. Basically, we are just working on building Ellen’s confidence. I say “we” because Dante and I are doing together.

We had a3-day weekend. As usual, on the first day, the river was too high. It was rainy, anyway. We worked on the hill. We took each horse separately. First, Ellen went with Dante. This is to help wean her off Cole. Dante was fine by himself—he always has been. He does tend to cry a little bit. He has the hoarsest voice I have ever heard on a horse.

At the bottom of the hill, we have a smooth, flat section that she trotted back and forth. Dante was a little fast and hyper to start with, but then he settled right down.

I then took Cole on the hill by himself instead of with Ranger. That way, I could do faster work. We did a lot of trotting, some cantering and Ellen placed some small logs on the trail so we could try jumping. He mostly trotted over them. Once, he did a large canter stride.

She then took Ranger on a quiet trip around the back loop with me walking beside them.

Saturday turned out to be a much better day. We took Cole and Dante on the short, fast ride. We did lots of trotting and a little bit of cantering. Since the river was still a little high, Ellen just rode Ranger on the hill. He was quite full of himself and trotted rather fast on the bottom.

Sunday was the best day of them all. We took Cole and Dante up to the show ring trails. There was a show at the ring, but we went nowhere near it. We just trotted The back trails. Both horses behaved lovely. Ellen then took Ranger across the river as l hiked along. They found Kevin with Starry along the way, and that made it even more fun.

On a sad note, but days are getting shorter and there is barely enough time for me to get a trail ride in after work. Kevin and I have had such a nice summer of trail riding in the evenings this year—I am really going to miss it. I just can’t get into the mood of working in the arena. I have one more week.